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Little extra on creative use of walk breaks

6/11/2014

9 Comments

 
A little while back, I wrote a bit about implementing walk breaks into your training runs.  It occurred to me I forgot to mention one of the nice side benefits of taking walk breaks while in a group setting.

When you run in a group...especially a larger group...the energy of the group is usually dissipated because some people run faster than others.  Consequently, the group fractures into little sub-groups.   A big group run turns into a lot of little group runs.  It's my feeling that it loses a little something.

If you use walk breaks...you can make it so everyone uses the walk break to return to each other...rather than forge ahead.  In other words...during the walk break...the people out ahead turn around and walk back to the folks running slower.  You can look at the person in the back as home base. They are, in a sense, leading the workout.   It's nice.

As long as the faster folks don't feel the need to put great amount of distance on the slower folks...and the slower folks don't have an ego problem...it works great. Everybody ends up running the pace that suits them and yet you still stick together.

I've done it many times...sometimes when I'm the fast guy and sometimes when I'm the slow guy...and I feel it keeps everything much more cohesive and you derive the intangible benefits of working as a group.

Remember to walk with fast cadence...and carry your arms in the running position.  It's not a rest...just a temporary switch to fast walking.

Imagine approaching the last 10 minutes of a 2 1/2 hour marathon-prep effort on the hilly Service Rd with 20 other people right alongside...as opposed to being by yourself or maybe with one other person who happens to be at your level.   Maybe give it a try.
9 Comments
Patricia Centrella
6/12/2014 12:53:13 am

Very good.

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Paul
6/12/2014 09:49:05 am

Thanks Trish...

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kathleen thomas
6/12/2014 09:18:10 am

Paul...I just love this idea! I am going to use the walk/run concept when I start trying to run long again!

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Paul
6/12/2014 09:52:16 am

Hi Kathleen,

Great...I think it will particularly well for you in that it will make a long run much more tolerable...and easy to recover from. Don't be afraid to play with the time intervals. Nothing is written in stone. Just walk with the fast cadence and do the walk breaks early in the run...rather than late in the run when you are already tired.

See you at the track...

Paul

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Matt Frost
2/13/2018 01:36:43 pm

Paul, are you the Paul Fendler from Rye NY who had Mr. Palermo for 6th grade at Midland School? If so, we were classmates with George Groglio, Paul Schwamm, Hap Solmer, Keith Irocci, Clem Clement, Carrie Heeter, etc? I've stayed in touch with some of these people over the years, ahem, decades, and have lived in Burlington MA for the past 25 years. Small world. I remember in 6th grade gym you had a bet with the gym teacher, Mr. A, that you could sink a long basket, and you did!

All the best, ~Matt

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Paul Fendler
2/13/2018 06:47:06 pm

Hi Matt...holy crap...you are going way, way back. But yeah...that's me. Your memory is obviously a million times better than mine...as I have no recall of that bet with Mr A. Amazing that you have stayed in touch with those people this long. Although I did see Paul Schwamm a few times after college...as late as 1991 I think. We road on the same bus to the NYC marathon.

I got get back to updating this web site. Been taking care of aging mom and it's taken most of my free time.

Thanks very much for getting in touch. Hope you are well.

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Matt Frost
2/14/2018 05:45:35 am

I remember your basket so well because it was such an impressive shot that you swished on the first try from about 50% outside of the 3-point line. I'll bet George Groglio and Rob Sherwin remember it as well. Perhaps you don't remember it because to you, maybe it didn't seem very extraordinary, but it really was! Our gym teacher nearly collapsed. LOL.

I remember your mom from when I visited your home. She was so nice. You lived near Rye Country Day School. Glad to hear she is still chugging along. My mother will turn 89 in July and is doing OK, living with my brother and his family in Chapel Hill NC, leaving Rye and her home on Milton Road only a few years ago..

I'm fine, albeit older, fat, and a bit rickety. Stopped running (not competitively) about 10 years ago, but did try a half marathon once. Completed the distance but cramped up and never tried anything near that distance again. I was a casual runner.

George G will be delighted to know where you are and that we touched bases. George is a defense attorney living in Port Chester. Saw many of our classmates in 2009 at Rye High School's class '74 reunion at Coveleigh near Milton Point. Great time, now Facebook friends with Schwammie, Rob Sherwin, Clem Clement, Carrie Heeter, and a bunch of others from Midland, although very few of them still live in Rye. Lisa McGuire's brother, Mike, lives on the Cape, as do a bunch of other Rye contemporaries of ours.

Please stay in touch, Paul. Maybe someday we can drop in on George and surprise the heck out of him. (He still plays summer softball at Rye Rec with members of the Totten family).

All the best, ~Matt

Paul Fendler
2/14/2018 07:41:48 pm

Hey Matt...are you on FB. Maybe I could friend you or could friend me? If you see George...ask him if he remembers me cheating in counting my laps around the Rye YMCA in a running contest. I think we were 10-11 years old. I still remember. Still ashamed. Interesting I got so into running.

Someday...when my daily care-taking duties are no longer...and I'm able to get a day or two off...maybe we'll do a an adventure back in time to see old classmates and stuff. Cheers!

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Matt Frost
2/15/2018 11:16:41 am

I am on FB but look at it infrequently, and George doesn't do FB yet. But, I'll send you a friend request. Also, you can reach George by email at groglio@aol.com My email address is jmattfrost@gmail.com. I heard back from George this morning and told him we've been chatting. Maybe in the springtime, if we have a break in our schedules, we can venture back to Rye for one of George's softball games. Best, ~Matt

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